The Vertical Farm
Page 18
The real question is, what lies ahead once all forms of urban agriculture take hold and the city begins to feel the positive effects of in-house food production? For a clear vision of urban life over the next fifty years, let’s go back to a more complete discussion of what the eco-city might look like. Bioproductivity is key to its success. Vertical farms and rooftop greenhouses have now solved that problem. So, with food-generating systems in place, the metropolis can finally turn its attention to the real task of creating a varied and interesting landscape, providing its inhabitants with healthy alternatives for living regardless of location and the specter of social and environmental injustices related to a deteriorated neighborhood. The rich and the poor need to find virtue in the landscape they live in in order for the city to fulfill its manifest destiny as a place where we all want to live and contribute to its institutions.
Ain’t Misbehavin’
The eco-city of tomorrow will have a built-in code of social ethics based on principals dictated by natural law. The most important one will be that a city cannot exceed its energy limits for any reason. Encroachment into natural systems to secure more resources will not be tolerated, since we will have once and for all learned our lesson regarding unwanted negative consequences for going where we are not welcome. Hence, the rational management of energy will become the number-one priority. Passive energy capture will be commonplace, and regulations encouraging all buildings to strive toward a zero-carbon footprint will be the mantra of city councils, the mayor’s office, and other governmental systems around the country. Elections will be won or lost depending upon how well those in power adhere to this ecological golden rule. It is possible to achieve this elusive goal with the massive application of known technologies. Some shining examples include things already mentioned; plasma arc gasification, for one. Along with eliminating the need to deal with municipal solid and liquid waste disposal, the city needs to become more aware of public transportation issues. Electric cars, safe bicycle paths, and a host of other people-friendly programs to encourage the use of all public spaces will unite its residents into a coherent body of voters whose sole aim will be the continued improvement of their environment. It is really not such a big stretch to imagine what it might be like to live in the eco-city of tomorrow from where we find ourselves today. There are a host of new programs scattered throughout the world that, when taken as a whole, could very well define how all of the successful green initiatives might come together to reform life in big cites.
We Have the Whole World in Our Hands
In the end, the choice is ours as to whether or not we will carry out our lives in an ecologically responsible fashion. Throughout our history, the human species has adapted to a changing environment by inventing technological solutions that made our life easier: better housing, more productive farming methods, global transportation, on-demand communications systems, and a host of medical intervention strategies. All of these activities have had both positive and negative effects on the way our planet functions. The time has arrived for humans to reassess their place in the natural world, embrace and celebrate the differences between us and the rest of the creatures that comprise it, and incorporate a reverence for our origins that reflects itself in a new respect for the DNA molecule, no matter what form it takes. In doing so, we will have achieved a major milestone in our evolution: sustainability into the millennium level.
Afterword
The Rise of the Vertical Farm Movement
Several vertical farms were erected between 2010 and 2011. The first examples are all prototypes and are in Japan, Korea, Holland, and England. I know of at least two more in the planning and fund-raising stages. Both of these are in the United States. The advent of such ambitious projects, given the short time between the emergence of the concept to operational prototype, is astounding, to say the least. I personally visited the one in Seoul, Korea, two months after it opened in March 2011. It is owned and operated by the Korean government, and the building’s supervisor, Dr. Min, informed me during my visit that the project was begun as the direct result of learning about the concept of the vertical farm at the 2008 Seoul Digital Forum, at which I spoke. Their eye-catching building is three stories tall and is designed to test various aspects of farming in a controlled environment on multiple floors. Lighting and automation are high on their list of things to work on. They are growing mainly leafy green vegetables using high-tech LED lighting, and they want to begin indoor aquaculture, as well. Next to the vertical farm is a much larger, newly built seed bank building (agrobiodiversity) that stores all varieties of crop seeds and native Korean plants. The testing of seed viability will be facilitated by the vertical farm. This is an ideal secondary use for the concept, and the Korean government should be heartily congratulated for their wonderful efforts.
The vertical farm in Kyoto, Japan (www.nuvege.com), is housed in a quanset hut–like building and is around three stories tall, as well. Inside, there are many examples of automated growing systems being tested. I have not had the pleasure yet of visiting that facility.
PlantLab (www.plantlab.nl/4.0) is in Den Bosch, the Netherlands. It is currently under construction and is based on a smaller prototype that has been up and running since 1999. Everything is grown by LED lighting, and they claim that their experiments, using a wide variety of LED fixtures, gives a threefold increase in plant yield using precisely controlled frequencies of red and blue. I have no knowledge as to when they will finish their construction phase and go into full production. All growing will be indoors with no natural light sources. In addition, they are putting it three stories underground, making PlantLab the world’s first and perhaps only “upside-down” vertical farm!
A demonstration vertical farm of five stories is under construction in Manchester, England. It takes advantage of an abandoned warehouse and the designers plan to raise poultry in addition to the standard variety of indoor vegetables and fruits. I had the pleasure of cutting the ribbon at the opening of their vertical farm at the Manchester International Festival in July 2011.
A vertical farm of five stories is planned for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by Will Allen’s Growing Power organization in collaboration with the Sweet Water Foundation (aquaponics components). The architect is Allen Washatko, the same atelier who designed the Aldo Leopold Center and the International Crane Recovery Center. Both of these ecologically oriented projects are also in Wisconsin. Milwaukee’s vertical farm is in the final stages of fund-raising as of June 2011.
A three-story vertical farm is planned for Jackson, Wyoming. It is in the early stages of fund-raising.
Marlene Bloom
DR. DICKSON DESPOMMIER spent thirty-eight years as a professor of microbiology and public health in environmental health sciences at Columbia University, where he won the Best Teacher Award six times. In 2003, he was awarded the American Medical Student Association Golden Apple Award for teaching. He has addressed audiences at leading universities, including Harvard and MIT, and has also been invited to speak at the United Nations. In addition, he has been asked by the governments of China, India, Mexico, Jordan, Brazil, Canada, and Korea to work on their environmental problems. Dr. Despommier lives in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Acknowledgments
When I began to write about the vertical farm concept, I was fortunate to be able to draw on ten years of classroom experience from a course I initiated called “Medical Ecology.” In it, my students and I had already brainstormed our way through most of the serious issues created by imagining a new kind of urban agriculture and its social implications. The names of all those wonderful individuals are listed at the back of the book, and to them I am forever grateful for having had the privilege of sharing those ideas with them. I thank Lisa Chamberlain, then a freelance writer, for having the courage to interview me when we first posted the Web site www.verticalfarm.com on the internet some eight years ago, for writing an extensive, well-written piece on the vertical farm, and then, remarkably, for managing to get
it published as a main feature article in New York Magazine. I cannot thank Steve Chen enough for being there throughout the entire process of taking the classroom concept and making it a “reality in cyberspace.” He single-handedly constructed the vertical farm Web site and managed its updates with great skill and sensitivity. He remains to this day in charge of its “look.” Mel Parker, my book agent, contacted me in the summer of 2008 with the prospect of producing a book about urban farming, and to him I express my heartfelt thanks for his belief in the project and continued guidance in the process of getting my ideas onto paper. His engaging daughter, Emily Parker, was enormously helpful in helping me to get this project into the hands of St. Martin’s Press. I especially thank my close friend and fishing/painting companion, Robert Demarest, and his wonderfully creative wife, Alice, for their unshakable, rock-steady interest and much-welcomed constructive criticism, always offered with generous helpings of friendship and kindness, without the fear of suggesting changes where they were most obviously needed. As soon as each chapter was written, I immediately called Bob and read it aloud to him. His responses were uniformly encouraging and most helpful, though I cannot believe he still wants to fish with me, since on each trip, I predictably lead the conversation back to the contents of my book. Andrew Kranis, then a student at Columbia’s School of Architecture, and I worked closely together on his final year’s project, the first vertical farm design, intended as a “think piece” for the Gowanus Canal Restoration Project. His final plan was so seductive that during the charrette, the committee in charge of the fund-raising effort said that they wanted his to be their first project. Thanks again, Andrew. A number of professional engineers, designers, and architects have been most helpful in my elementary education into their world of construction and design. They shared with me their insights as to the feasibility of such an undertaking as building a vertical farm from scratch: Herbert Einstein at MIT, Richard Plunz and Trish Culligan at Columbia University, Greg Kiss of Kiss and Cathcart Architects, Chris Jacobs at United Future, Eric Ellingsen at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Dan Albert of Weber Thompson Architects, and construction engineer Robert Brod. Jeanie Bochett, workplace consultant at Steelcase, New York, generously funded and arranged for a lavishly illustrated display on the vertical farm, and then installed it in their entranceway at Fifty-eighth street just off Columbus Circle, for an entire month. It attracted a lot of attention from the public and popular press alike, turning the concept from something abstract into a highly plausible idea. Thanks to the New York City Department of City Planning and the architectural firms of Grimshaw, FxFowl, and Arup, all of whom invited me to visit their inner sanctums to present the ideas that grew out of the project over the last five years. I am certain I learned much more than they did as the result of my random walks with PowerPoint. A very special thanks to all the designers, architects, and architecture students who voluntarily contributed to the visual portion of the book with highly inventive, beautifully rendered versions of their own dreams as to what a vertical farm might look like. I thank the director of The World Science Festival in New York City, Brian Greene, physicist extraordinaire, for inviting me to speak at several of its venues, greatly expanding the range of audiences that have now heard the idea for the first time. Through my participation in that enlightening series of events and presentations, I attracted the attention of speaker recruiters working for the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) organization, who gave me the opportunity to present the idea to yet another highly selected and appreciative audience. In that same spirit, I thank the organizers of Pop-Tech, The Seoul Digital Forum, Taste3, and PINC for their kind invitations. I want to give a very special thanks to Stephen Colbert, who invited me to appear on his immensely popular TV show, The Colbert Report. He was gracious and encouraging (and very funny, too!), making sure I had time to present the idea to his viewing audience. The next day, our Web site got 400,000 hits, crashing it three separate times! I thank Exit Art and The Cooper-Hewitt museums for featuring exhibits on vertical farming, allowing yet more individuals access to the concept. Several people deserve extra-special recognition for their roles in the creation of this book. Dale Meyers, my dear art teacher and friend, read an early draft and offered excellent suggestions that are in the book today. Jake Cox arrived in my office newly graduated from Bates College and without a job. I could not offer him much in the way of a salary or a steady position, but I managed somehow to convince him that it would be worth his time in other ways if he agreed to work with me on the book. Not only did he agree to do so with joy, intelligence, and enthusiasm, but along the way he independently created a highly successful blog on the subject that is both ongoing and engaging. He (apparently, willingly) suffered through many of what must have been immensely boring days of my reading from the manuscript, again and again, as I wrote and rewrote passages, all the while, expressing his welcomed opinions on a wide variety of subjects as they arose each day. Jake proved to be good company and fun to be around. Thank you Clay Hiles for recommending him to me. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press has been wonderful to me throughout the production and marketing phases of my book. I especially thank Tom Dunne and Sally Richardson for sharing my vision and giving it their full support. A big thanks to Marcia Markland, my editor, and Kat Brzozowski, her incredibly competent assistant, for magically transforming my words and images into a thing of beauty! Thanks also to Joe Rinaldi and Joan Higgins for their wise counseling and sage advice about all things related to the media and publicity. I thank J. D. Stettin for all his wonderful help in managing everyday things and my blog. I suspect one day he will own and operate his own vertical farm. Finally, I thank Marlene Bloom, my wife. What a fortunate person I am, for she has brought great joy to my life, and has been a solid supporter of the vertical farm concept and this book from the moment we began to discuss its possibilities. In the summer of 1999, we “hatched” the idea and the embryo has grown ever since into a full-fledged thing of beauty. Granted, she has now become somewhat weary of the verbatim contents of my well-worn manuscript, having heard all of it many times over, but she is still the book’s biggest supporter. In fact, she often offers her own version of the vertical farm and its advantages whenever the subject arises, and regardless of the venue. Her editorial skills are extensive. She has the ability to reduce a sentence to its essence and an idea to a distilled point of truth. It has served me well to listen to, and adopt most of, her constructive criticism into the body of the work that is now before you the reader. Enjoy!
Appendices
1) Students Who Contributed to the Vertical Farm Project
2) Author’s Note on the Rainforest Fund
3) Suggested Reading
4) Web Resources
5) Additional Suggestions
Students Who Contributed to the Vertical Farm Project
Class of 2004
Anisa Buck
Jenifer Monte
Daniel Dine
Pearl Moy
Stacy Goldberg
Anita O’Connor
Vani Gulate
Katerina Paraskevas
Vivek Iyer
Rebbeca Tatum
Ben Jacob
Carrie Teicher
Eugene Kang
Janice Turner
Roger Kim
Class of 2005
Alam Saad
Theodore Sakata
Kristen Coates
Dennis Santella
Stephen Lee
Sapna Surendran
Maribeth Lovegrove
Kelly Urry
Michele Robalino
Class of 2006
James Baumgartner
Elizabeth Del Giacco
Jasmin Beria
Leslie-Anne Danielle Fitzpatrick
Kenneth Chamber
Bryan Joshua Garber
Gin
Kathleen Ann Rosevelt
Alexis Katrell Harman
Jordana Rothchild
Rory E. Maur
o
Nicholas Sebes
Jun Michael Mitsumoto
Adrienne Sheetz
Natalie Neu
Sonia Demitrie Toure
Ivan Ramirez
Athina Vassilakis
Elizabeth Morgan Reitano
Class of 2007
Evelyn Natalia Alvarez
Steven Kauh
Matthew Peter Bussa
Raeya Khan
Caroline Carnevale
Danille Kontovas
Yana Chervona
Cynthia Lendor
Richele Lynn Corrado
Jason Light
Manisha Daswani
Kevin Lo
Jonathan Gass
Diego Lopez De Castilla
Moshen Ghanefar
Christopher Martin
Katherine Gifford
Mary Ann Popovech
Sookyung Ham
Iris Anne Cruz Reyes
Jong Jin Jo
Yalini Senathirajah
Dianna Jones
Timon Tai
Class of 2008
Sarah Autry
Hannah Kellogg